It's been a struggle to get the sound dialed in, a rather unpleasant surprise as naively I expected it to be a breeze what with having the flexibility of a dedicated room. My last issue was a soundstage that suffered from to much "left"-"right" emphasis at the expense of a natural soundfield with good center fill.

Yesterday I applied the Cardas recommendation for placement in a rectangular room; the room actually opens at back (perhaps as much as 1/4 the full lenght) to a staircase to the upper level and backrooms (all with door access) but it still mostly resembles a long rectangualr room it seems to me.

This places the speakers a foot or so (roughly) out in front of the two equipment stands and hence much closer to each other as well. While this seems superficially odd on reflection it compares better to my last setup as far as speaker distance to wall boundaries is concerned, it just wasn't immediately obvious this was the case in the last setup as there was little choice as to where the speakers sat.

Well it seems that was a very positive change for the better, the sound now much more a natural soundfield where, for example, in a wind emsemble the instruments spread sensibly aross the hozizontal plane with a good depth of field as well. I will tinker a little more but I expect only minor adjustments (toe-in, etc.)